May it please Almighty God to
bless us together as we meditate in His Word this evening. Let
us turn to the Gospel of John, chapter 17, and we'll read verse
3. Gospel of John, chapter 17, and
reading verse 3. And this is life eternal. that they might know thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.' It is really holy ground, this
seventeenth chapter John I know we might say what all the Bible
is holy ground and it is of course But in a very special and very
particular way this 17th chapter of John records the prayer of
Jesus to his father in great detail And we should be very
thankful that we see here the Lord Jesus Christ coming to his
God and yet, of course, his father. And what wonderful truths they
are, because we're told these words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son. that thy son
also may glorify thee he'd come to that time just before he was
to be taken, arrested and taken captive and go to the judgment
hall and subsequently go to Calvary to be crucified And so we are
in the last few hours before that occurred. And we see the
Lord Jesus speaking and praying to his Father and saying, I have
glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. And it's wonderful to know the
Lord Jesus Christ did not fail. in finishing the work that his
father gave him to do. And that work that the father
gave him to do was the wonderful work of redemption, to save his
people from their sins. Those people that the father
had elected way back in eternity past, and had given to his son. It was those that the son had
come into this world to live and to die as their shorty, as
we sang in that first hymn. What a wonderful truth it is
to realize that we do have a shorty, who's paid the price for all
of our sins, so that by God's grace, our place in heaven is
secure and eternally secure. The Lord said, as thou hast given
him, that's the Lord Jesus, power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him, none
less, none more. But every one who the Father
elected in eternity past were given to the Son. And in order
for them to arrive safely at heaven, the requirement was that
all their sins should be taken away. the Blessed Saviour took
on that onerous position and it cost him his life, it cost
him his blood in order to satisfy the holy demands of the righteous
law of God the Father. And so we come to this third
verse which tells us, and this is Life eternal. Well I hope that all of us tonight
are interested in this life eternal. Because we have a soul, every
one of us, a soul which is eternal. A soul which will never die. And that soul will live there
for forever. either in heaven or in hell. It's a very solemn
consideration and how necessary it is that you and I, while we
are on the earth, have the evidence that we are amongst those for
whom Christ came into this world to suffer and to bleed and to
die, that we might be delivered from the wrath to come. There is a wrath to come, an
eternal wrath to come, to all those who are not among those
whom the Lord Jesus Christ died for. Yes, it's a terrible situation. It's a terrible thought. It's
a terrible truth. And how easy it is for us to
pass over such considerations. The devil never wants us to think
about them. He wants us always to put such
thoughts to the back of our mind and to press on. through this
poor, old, sinful, empty world. There's nothing here in this
world that can truly satisfy. Things may, as it were, tickle
our fancy for a while, for a short while, but let's compare that
with eternity. There's no real comparison, is
there? there's no real comparison and the reason why there's no
comparison is that eternity has no end there's no time in eternity
we can only go by what we know in this time state of this world
but in eternity there is no time and so you and I cannot compare
the things of this world with eternity because it is forever. Well, it'll be a great blessing
if we have received the gift of eternal life. It's the greatest
gift that any of us can ever receive. We perhaps want many
things and desire many things, but the great and wonderful gift
of eternal life exceeds all these things that this world has to
offer. And the Apostle Paul had a right
understanding of this, and the last verse of the sixth chapter
of the Romans tells us this. For the wages of sin is death. That means the payment. For our
sin is death, that means eternal death. That means death of our
body, it doesn't mean death of our soul. But the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The important
consideration is to know that we have received this gift of
eternal life. Now, Only you and only I know
whether we are recipients of this gift of eternal life. We
do not know what another one possesses. We may have a good
idea, we may think we know, but we may not know. And you may
say, well, why do you say that? Well, I say that really because
of the very sad case in the Bible of Judas Iscariot. You may remember
he was counted as one of the 12. And when the Lord on that
memorable Passover night said there was one on the table who
would betray him, none of them pointed the finger at Judas. Some of them asked, was it I?
They were concerned about themselves, but none of them realized It
was Judas Iscariot. And he'd been trusted. He looked
after the money. He was a trusted character. But
he was a lost soul. And therefore we realize that
you and I cannot look at another person and say, well, he's a
godly person. He's a saved person. We might
think so. We might believe so. It's only
known to God. How stands the case my soul with
thee? For heaven are thy credentials
clear. See, that's what we need. We
need clarity, personally, that we stand complete in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're so often so concerned about
all the vanities of time and what we should do tomorrow and
how we will continue in perhaps a few weeks time and what does
the future hold. The important thing is are we
the recipients of this wonderful gift of eternal life. You know the apostle in this
sixth chapter In this previous verse he says, but now, being
made free from sin, we're only free from sin if we're washed
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But now, it's good if
we have a but now in our lives. There was a time when there was
not a now, when we were lost, when there was no hope. We were
without God in this world. But oh, what reason to praise
God if there is now a but now be made free from sin and become
servants to God, whereas we were servants of the devil. We did
the devil's will. We listened to what he said.
We followed him. What a mercy if we've become
servants to God and ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end
everlasting life. What a change, what a change
if we have passed from death to life and that everlasting
life. Well, says the blessed Saviour,
and this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the Father,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, His Son, whom Thou hast
sent. Without the knowledge of the
Father, without the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
do not possess the great gift of eternal life. Such a consideration is indeed
searching, and often people just carry on content to not really
have a certain knowledge that they are amongst those who have
been blessed with these wonderful favours of knowing the true God,
the Father, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Well, it's
a question which you and I need to be able to answer. not something
that we want to pass over we want to know that the Father
has called us the Father chose us in eternity past and that
we were given to the Son and the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ
died on our behalf as our substitute, as our surety to take away all
our sins that which was required on our behalf, the Saviour willingly
paid. What a mercy then, if you and
I have the evidence in our hearts that the Lord Jesus Christ is
our Saviour and God is our Father. We do have, if we are God's children,
a Father in heaven. and we can pray to our Father
in heaven through the merits of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ. What a great comfort it should
be to know that we are the children of God and heirs of that eternal
inheritance. That which cannot be removed,
cannot be taken away, What it means is that we are safe in
the arms of Jesus, not because of what we've done, not because
of how good we've been, but because of the love of God the Father,
because of the love of God the Son, because of the love of God
the Holy Spirit. Three in one and one in three. the co-equal God, the almighty
ruler of the universe, the creator of the universe, the one who
has planned everything that occurs, everything that will occur. This
is the mighty God. This is the powerful God that
you and I have to deal with. And what a mercy, therefore,
if we have this wonderful favour of eternal life. eternal life. You know the Apostle Paul was
privileged to be able to tell us so many great truths and of
course he was lifted up from the earth into the third heaven.
He tells us to see things unspeakable But the Lord nonetheless called
him and he was a converted man on that Damascus road. And the
Lord came and spoke to him. He said, who are thou, Lord?
And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou have persecuted. It is hard
for thee to kick against the pricks. That means that no doubt
Paul had received many pricks of conscience as he pursued his
own agenda, as he pursued the wrong way, the false way. And we may be following the false
way, the wrong way. And we may have many pricks of
conscience because we want to follow our own agenda. We don't
want to bow down and worship Almighty God. But what a blessing
it is if, when the Holy Spirit comes and shows us exactly where
we stand before a holy God, and that is as a guilty, hell-deserving
sinner with no hope in ourselves, we're lost, eternally lost, unless
we are saved. while it's a mercy, therefore
to hear the gracious invitations of the gospel. Come unto me,
says the Lord Jesus Christ. Come unto me. What a wonderful
word that is. How many people reject it. All ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. for I am meek and lowly in heart
and ye shall find rest unto your souls that my friends is a wonderful
and gracious and glorious invitation but as I've said fairly recently
it is qualified by those who are burdened and heavy laden
and that means burdened and heavy laden with their sin so if I
was to ask tonight how many of you know you're a sinner How
many of you know you're a great sinner? How many of you know
that you need a Saviour? How many of you know you have
received a Saviour? The Saviour has come to you in
your lost condition and called you by His grace just like the
Apostle Paul tells us. He was called by the grace of
God and every one of us must be called by the grace of God,
called to recognise our lost condition and called to seek
forgiveness from the hand of the Saviour and called to believe
that He is the great and glorious Saviour of sinners and that He
is my Saviour. Let us not move away from the reality that true religion
is personal. You and I can't die for other
people. We have to stand and die for ourselves. And we have
to have the knowledge of a Saviour who has died on our behalf. We have to have the knowledge
of the Father who loved us in eternity past, that Father who
has given us to his Son, and the Son has given his life that
you and I might receive life. And we must never pass along
and pass over great truths of Scripture. and say, well they're
just too difficult for me to understand. That's just what
the devil wants you to say. My friends, the word of God tells
us, seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened
unto you. We are to pray. We have a prayer
hearing and a prayer answering God. There's many, many evidences
of it throughout the Word of God. Of those who prayed and
the Lord's heard and answered prayer. Those in a dire situation. A dire situation. We mentioned
Daniel in prayer. Daniel was a man of God. And he was able to declare before
the king when he was there, there is a God in heaven, my friends,
that you and I know. There is a God in heaven. And Daniel had proved that God
in heaven when he was thrown into the lion's den. And he says,
God shut the lion's mouths. And God delivered him. There
he was all night with the hungry lions. But he was delivered. Yes, he was delivered. And he
was able to testify to the king when he came to the den early
in the morning, concerned that perhaps Daniel might have been
consumed. He asked the question, is thy
God able to deliver me? My God has shut the lion's mouth. Daniel's God was able. My friends, that God has not
changed. He is as able today to deliver
our souls, not from the lions, but from the clutches of Satan,
who is very anxious to consume us, very anxious to cause us
to sin, very anxious to turn against God but my friends we
have an all-powerful God let us not underestimate the power
of God and it's good that we can read power belongeth unto
God yes almighty power the devil may have power he doesn't have
almighty power he can only go so far Oh yes, blessed be God. And so here we have this, these
words of the Saviour to His Father, as thou hast given Him power
over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given Him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. Well then, have we the evidence
in our own heart that we've come to the Lord Jesus Christ, we've
poured out our hearts to our God, we've prayed desperately for
forgiveness, who'd come in perhaps like that publican and said,
God be merciful to me a sinner. There weren't any fancy words,
he didn't repeat it unseen times. We're told, the effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And that was an effectual
fervent prayer. And bless God if he gives you
and me the effectual fervent prayer to pray to our God, to
pray for forgiveness. to pray to have the evidence
that we possess the wonderful gift of eternal life. And we
will only come to that knowledge if the Lord himself shows to
us that he, none less, the only begotten Son of God, died to
atone for our sins, gave his life, shed his most precious
blood on that cross at Calvary. It was no light thing. The price
was great. The Saviour paid it. He finished
the work His Father gave Him to do. Now then, that's what
you and I need to know. That we are saved. The Lord Jesus Christ has died
for us. And we have the evidence of His
work on our behalf. Yes, it's personal. Real religion
is personal. So many people today don't realise
the relevance of that thing. But my friends, you and I need
to know, need to know, that Jesus came into this world, as Paul
said, to save sinners. of whom I am chief. And you might say, well, Paul,
that's a bit extreme, you making that statement. It's not extreme. And if the Holy Spirit comes
and touches your heart, it may not be to begin with when the
Lord first calls you, but to come to that place where you
stand guilty before God as the chief of sinners. You don't go
looking round to find people who are worse. Because you realise,
thou art the man, as Nathan said to David, when David was looking
round. Yes, thou art the man. And you
and I are the man and the woman who the Lord convinces of sin. And so we stand before a holy
God with nothing to bring but our sin. I came to Jesus as I
was. Isn't that wonderful? Weary and
weak and sad. Yes, what a mercy it is to know
that the door of God's mercy stands open all day and night
to the poor and the needy who knock by the way. Well you know
whether you've knocked on mercy's door or whether it's just been
a theoretical prayer or whether it's been generated by the Spirit
of God from your very heart so you've earnestly come seeking
for mercy seeking for forgiveness because mercy indeed is welcome
news indeed to those who guilty stand it's not a comfortable
position to be a condemned sinner it's not a comfortable position
but it's a good position and it's a necessary position because
unless you and I stand there as a condemned sinner We will
never flee to Christ. We won't see any need in Christ. But if we stand as a condemned
sinner, to realize there's hope, and that hope is through the
merits of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done when he died
upon the cross at Calvary. To be able to come and say, My
hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Tonight, my friends, as you answer
before God, where is your hope? You say, well, I've never really
thought about it. Again, it's very important to be honest before
God. Because you and I are still on
this earth, we're still on praying ground. God hasn't taken us from
this earth as someone of no value, of rubbish. But our life's been
spared. And spared to be able to come
to our God, to cry for mercy, to realise we're nothing in and
of ourselves. and to realise that the wonderful
gift of eternal life is that we might know God the Father,
who is a just God. And you and I stand before that
justice as a guilty sinner to realise we are condemned before
the true God. It's not a false God. He's just,
my friends. And again, we all have to come
and to recognise that if my soul were sent to hell, his righteous
law approves it well. You won't be able to say, I don't
deserve hell. You will have to come saying,
I do deserve hell, but I hope in the blood of the Saviour. I hope that the Lord Jesus Christ
is dying to take away my sin so that I stand complete in Him,
no longer decked with my own righteousness, no longer content
with the things that I've said and the things that I've done,
but now blessed to realise that I'm clothed with that precious
robe of Christ's righteousness which once put on will never
be taken off because we are one of the redeemed of the Saviour. And we are therefore eternally
safe. See how relevant these things
are. They're not just figments of
our imagination. My friends, it refers to our
eternal life. Our eternal life. And you know,
if we don't know, if we haven't had our sin revealed to us, if
we haven't had the Savior revealed to us, my friends, pray earnestly. Pray earnestly. And don't give
up. Pray on and on. The Saviour perhaps
waits to be gracious. Waits to be gracious. There is,
the Word of God tells us, a time. There is a set time. There is
a God-ordained time to favour Zion, to bless the Church of
God, to bless us as individuals. If we are amongst those who the
Father elect in eternity past, the great plan was laid out For
our salvation, every moment of our life was planned in detail
and it's being fulfilled in accordance with God's plan. Not your plan,
not my plan, but my friends, let us not be deceived. Let us
not assume everything is right and rosy and that we're well. We're well on the way to glory
when in fact we're well on the way to hell. A personal knowledge of Christ
as our Savior is essential. A personal knowledge to know
that Christ has died for me. and that I am complete in him. And it is therefore that as the
Lord Jesus said when he spoke, began that wonderful address
to the disciples in the upper room, let not your heart be troubled.
Ye believe in God, God the Father. Believe also in me, God the Son. You and I need blessed faith
God given faith to believe in God the Father, to believe in
God the Son, to believe in God the Holy Spirit. And blessed,
you know, with this faith to believe, I believe it directs
us then to the wonderful love of God, the triune God, to such
an unworthy sinner you shall stand amazed as the Lord reveals
to you that he has loved you with everlasting love because
if he hadn't he wouldn't reveal these things to you but because
he has that's why they are revealed to you what a mercy what a blessing how humbling it is to realize
that this is the God who has said I go to prepare a place
for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again
and receive you each one receive unto myself for this divine purpose
that where I am there ye may be also in heaven for eternity It's good
sometimes to just sit down and think of the glory of Emmanuel's
land forever. If by God's grace we get to glory
we won't have to worry about what's going to happen because
we know that all is well and it will be happiness Forever. There's no time. We can't say,
well, tomorrow. There's no time. It's just the
same forever. No possibility of being lost. No possibility of being taken
out of that eternal bliss. But with Christ and the ransomed
Church of God forever. It is surely a wonderful and
blessed prospect to consider. And this is life eternal. This
is life eternal. Well, if God has given us eternal
life, have we not real cause to praise and to glorify God
and to testify of what He's done for our immortal souls indeed
to rejoice that he's not passed us by but he stopped and there
we were in our mad career and he stopped us and said live he's
given life eternal life all my friends there's no greater blessing
than you and I can receive than this wonderful gift of eternal
life. And as the Lord Jesus Christ,
he says, and this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the
only true God, God the Father. If we know him, it's a proof
that we possess eternal life, and Jesus Christ, the proof that
we possess eternal life, whom thou hast sent. Well, may God
be pleased to, grant us the application of his word so that we have the
wonderful evidence that by his grace one day we shall be in
glory forever and ever.